


These Invisible Walls

by amukmuk



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, also brief description of gunship crash, mentions of mean senators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25193536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amukmuk/pseuds/amukmuk
Summary: Five times Riyo showed affection and one time Fox did.
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Comments: 18
Kudos: 183





	These Invisible Walls

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for @flyawaybluebirdie on tumblr for the prompt touch or blanket! (I decided to be extra and combine them).

**One**

Fox stands at the landing pad, ready to welcome yet _another_ freshly elected senator. As if he doesn’t have enough to do as it is, he also serves as the resident tour guide for all the shiny senators. Beneath his bucket, he rolls his eyes.

As the ramp lowers on the Pantoran ship, Senator Riyo Chuchi appears. He has read her file, acquainted himself with her appearance to ensure that he isn’t welcoming separatist scum with open arms. But, for some reason, Fox is shocked by how _small_ she is. She’s petite and blue and looks like she wants to be just here as much as Fox does. 

“Senator. Welcome to Coruscant,” Fox greets. He stands at formal parade rest and prepares for her to brush him off because he’s just a clone, and that’s what every other senator does. 

“Thank you.” She holds out her hand. “I’m Riyo Chuchi.”

He stares at her hand, her fingers are slender and are adorned with petite golden rings. Slowly, probably resembling a robot that he is thought to be, he takes her hand. “Commander Fox, ma’am.”

“Lovely to make your acquaintance, Commander.” She says as she gives his hand a few shakes up and down. 

“Likewise, Senator,” he states and for the first time in his life, he thinks he may actually mean those words. 

**Two**

There is a knock at his door and Fox instantly feels homicidal. If someone is coming in here to tell him that he is late on the paperwork he is filling out right now he’s going to kill them. He would have been _done_ by now except he had to keep taking breaks to babysit the damned, shiny Senators. “Enter,” he growls. 

“Hi Commander,” Senator Chuchi is standing at his door, holding a tin can of _something_. 

_Oh no_. 

Please don’t let this be a package she was delivered. They will have to lock down the whole area, the bombsquad will be called in and then he really won’t get this paperwork done. 

Wearing a smile that only worsens his anxiety, she enters his cluttered, supply closet-sized office and stands in front of his desk. 

“Can I help you with something, Senator?” He bites.

Her smile falters. “I just wanted to say thank you. I know you’re busy, but I just wanted to properly thank you for showing me around. Without you, I would be, in quite the literal sense of the word, lost.”

He stares at her. Thanking him? _Thanking him?_

She clears her throat and shifts her weight back and forth between her feet. “Anyway, thanks.” She thrusts the tin box at him. “I baked some traditional Pantoran cookies. They’re my favorite.”

Hesitant, he accepts the box from her, their fingers brushing. To his surprise, however, she doesn’t flinch away from his accidental touch. Most senators do. “Thanks… This is very nice of you.”

She beams. “Anyway, I will let you get back to work. It was lovely seeing you again, Commander.” And she darts away, leaving Fox standing in his office staring down at a tin of cookies like they may hold the meaning of life. 

**Three**

Fox breathes a sigh of relief as the elevator door closes. If he is being honest with himself, he is _not_ doing well. He hasn’t slept in three days and he is getting really tired of senators referring to him as just ‘clone’ or whatever other derogatory terms they come up with. Finally, in the peaceful quiet of an empty, descending elevator - he is alone. He slouches, his back aching from standing impossibly straight all day. 

To his absolute and total dismay, the elevator lurches and the doors slide open, revealing Senator Chuchi. Her face lights up immediately and Fox feels nothing but dread. Normally, he can partake in some chipper small talk that she likes to make, but he is tired and he just wants to get to his office so he can take a shot of brandy and fall asleep on his desk. 

“Hello, Commander!” She chirps as she steps into the elevator. 

“Senator,” he greets with a nod. 

“How are you today?” He’s gotten used to her asking this question. The first time she had asked, his brain had almost stopped working altogether. Now, he has a canned response. 

“I’m fine, ma’am, and you?”

“Doing well, thank you.” 

Silence falls between them as the floors tick down. 

“You seem like you have a lot on your mind, Fox. Are you sure you are alright?”

He looks over at her. He is always ready for everything, but Riyo always seems to catch him off guard. “What?”

“I’m sorry, I do not mean to pry, how rude of me.” 

The elevator dings; they’ve reached her floor. 

Placing a gentle hand upon his upper arm, she says, “I hope whatever is troubling you passes easily and without grief. Have a wonderful day, Commander.”

The doors are already sliding shut when he musters up the coherency to tell her to have a good day as well. 

**Four**

Fox signs his number for the last time and exhales a heavy sigh of relief. Senator Chuchi had asked if she could stop by for lunch and while he had initially told her no, after about a week of her asking, he finally conceded. Now he finds himself rushing to get his work done so that she can still come by. 

When she knocks on the door, he straightens up his desk haphazardly and calls for her to enter. 

She stands there with multiple bags of food and a tray of drinks. “Good afternoon, Fox. How are you today?”

“I’m fine, thank you. How are you?” He pulls his chair around to the other side of the desk for her to sit in. It’s not the most comfortable thing, but it is a far cry better than his guest chair that has a broken leg and wobbles enough to make even him a little seasick while sitting in it. 

“I’m doing quite wonderfully now,” she smiles, and puts her bags on top of his desk, minding the datapads. “I hope you enjoy greasy diner food. Ahsoka showed me this place called Dex’s and while it is in absolute violation of every health code, his food is amazing. I got a couple things. I didn’t know what you liked.”

“I’ll eat anything, ma’am.”

“Fox, how many times do I need to tell you to call me Riyo? We’re friends!” She lightly smacks his wrist and he lets himself smile. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s a habit.”

**Five**

The unnatural warmth and claminess of his right hand pulls him into consciousness. Blinking awake, he is welcomed by the harsh fluorescent lights above him. He groans and rolls his head over to the right, eyeing the culprit guilty of ruining the first good night’s sleep he’s gotten in months. A small smile creeps to his lips when he sees Riyo fast asleep at the edge of his cot, his hand entrapped in hers. 

“Riyo?” He whispers and she sits bolt upright, releasing his hand - much to his own dismay - and straightening her hair. 

“Fox. I’m so glad you are alright.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easily,” he huffs, suddenly aware of the ribs broken by the blast. 

“Good, you’re a very dear friend. I would be lost without you.”

He takes her in. She looks like she has hardly slept and her hair is sticking up out of her golden headpiece. He has an overwhelming urge to reach up and tuck it back to where it belongs. He has so many things he wants to say, like that she’s his friend too and that he would be lost without her too because she is the only good thing he has. “Thank you,” he whispers instead, hoping his meaning is still relayed. 

Her eyes widen. “For what?”

“For staying,” he whispers, turning his hand over as an invitation for her to hold it again. 

Luckily she catches on and does. “You’re very welcome.”

**\+ One**

Honestly, she shouldn’t be surprised that their ship got shot down. When the gunship crashed into the snow, she had thought that it was the end - she had finally died. But then she comes to with Fox shaking her awake. 

“Riyo. Riyo!”

She blinks a couple times. “I’m fine. I’m awake,” she swats him away. 

He lets out a harsh exhale and his shoulders fall from his ears just a pinch. “We need to move out. Seppies may come to scout the wreckage.”

She nods. “Any survivors?”

“Just you and me. Can you stand?” 

Easing herself up she gives him another nod, “Yes. I’m alright. Where do we go?”

“Scanners picked up some caves over to the east. If we move quickly we should make it by nightfall.”

“Okay. Lead the way, Commander.” 

With a grunt, he heaves a pack onto his back and pulls himself out of the overturned gunship. She tries not to look at the twisted and contorted bodies at her feet as she accepts his hand and is hauled out. The icy wind of this planet takes her breath away and she gasps. 

“Sure you’re alright?” He questions. 

In the daylight, she sees the way he is hunched forward slightly, cradling one arm closer to himself than normal. His armor is significantly more scratched and some of the red paint has been chipped off. “I should be asking the same to you.”

He shrugs with the arm he isn’t cradling. “I’ll live.”

“Then I will as well. Let us find these caves.”

They walk in tense silence. When they finally reach an ominous opening to the belly of a mountain, he turns on the lights attached to his helmet and enters. “No life signs. We should be safe here for the night. I sent out a distress signal when we crashed. A squadron will be here by tomorrow morning.”

“That is good news,” she manages through a shiver. It is so, so cold here. Wrapping her arms around herself she tries to suppress even more convulsions. 

“I have a blanket, and,” he trails off pulling his pack off of his back. “A small heater. It probably has enough juice to last until pick up. I haven’t seen anything around here that we could burn.”

Night falls quickly and it makes Riyo desperately wish for the sun. If Fox is cold, he isn’t showing it - at least not in the same convulsive manner that she is. She can hardly keep her teeth from chattering. They each have a blanket; she has knees folded up so that the blanket fully envelops her and he has his draped around his shoulders. Wordlessly, Fox rises, shrugging off the blanket, and begins pulling off his armor. He hisses a little when he moves his injured arm and then he is wrapping himself back up in the blanket and crossing the cave floor. 

He eases himself down next to her and opens his arms. “Come here,” he grunts. 

She doesn’t need to be told twice. 

Oh and he is so warm. She drapes her blanket over their legs and he wraps his around their arms. He pulls her into his chest and she folds herself tightly around him. Never in her life has she felt safer than she has in his arms. 

“This is nice,” Riyo murmurs. 

Fox hums in the affirmative and runs his hands through her hair. “Yeah, this is nice.” 

She falls asleep like this, curled in his arms, his fingers in her hair, and waiting for help to come in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Six by Sleeping at Last. 
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading, commenting, and leaving kudos! <3


End file.
